Poker Legend Doyle Brunson Gets Fight With Feds He Gambled On

Federal prosecutors in Baltimore have seized the Internet domain names of 10 gaming web sites, including the online home of DoylesRoom, the poker web site that for years was promoted by Doyle Brunson, known as the Godfather of Poker and the most legendary professional poker player of his generation.

Two indictments filed by the U.S. Attorney in Baltimore, Rod Rosentein, were unsealed on Monday that charged a Canadian company, ThrillX Systems, and a Cyprus company, K23 Group, with operating illegal gambling businesses and money laundering. Three individuals were also charged, but Brunson was not one of them. He had recently distanced himself from DoylesRoom, saying he no longer was associated with the web site that carried his image and asked it to stop using his name. Brunson had previously said he owned some stock in the web site, but did not consider himself an owner. It does not seem like he had any role in the operations of the web site outside of promoting it.

Last year Brunson spoke defiantly to Forbes about the potential for a federal crackdown on online poker. “I don’t have a problem with the Justice Department, and I hope they don’t have a problem with me,” he said. “At my age I really don’t care if they are going to cast the gauntlet.” Brunson said that he believed online poker was legal under U.S. law. “The poker industry as a whole is ready to have a fight,” Brunson said.

That fight has come in recent weeks. The indictments unsealed on Monday by federal prosecutors in Baltimore are part of the Department of Justice’s assault on the online gaming industry. In April the U.S. Attorney in Manhattan, Preet Bharara, indicted the founders of PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker, the world’s biggest online poker companies, as part of a sweeping crackdown that included a $3 billion civil claim by the government and the seizure of the companies’ Internet domain names, effectively shutting down their U.S. facing operations. In total, 11 individuals were indicted by Bharara and charged with a variety of offenses like operating illegal gambling businesses and conspiring to commit bank fraud.

PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker, which have consistently insisted their operations do not violate U.S. law, have since suspended their U.S. operations and cut deals with federal prosecutors to facilitate the return of funds to online poker players in the U.S. One of the 11 people indicted, Bradley Frazen, recently pleaded guilty and said he had improperly processed financial transactions for online poker companies.

The Justice Department has long stated that online poker violates U.S. law even though the basis for this position remains murky. Earlier this month U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said at a House Judiciary Committee hearing that it was “beyond my capabilities” to weigh in on whether poker was a game of chance or skill, an issue that is fundamentally connected to the Department of Justice’s position that online poker violates U.S. law.

The companies targeted by the U.S. Attorney in Baltimore engaged in more than just online poker operations, however, offering customers the opportunity to bet on sporting events, an activity that is clearly in violation of U.S. law. The federal investigation run out of Baltimore also involved some aggressive tactics. Investigators working for the Department of Homeland Security in Baltimore opened an undercover payment process business called Linwood Payment Solutions, allowing undercover agents to gain contact with top managers of gambling operations, negotiating contracts and terms of financial transactions, and facilitating payment data between online gaming firms and banks. In total the undercover payment processor processed over 300,000 transactions worth more than $33 million.